Can you tell me who created the popular Dragon Ball animated series? Does the artist do any other cartoons?
— Ricky Cruz
The original Dragon Ball comic was a series loosely based on many characters from the 300-year-old Chinese epic Journey to the West, also known as The Legend of the Monkey King.The comic, which has since reached almost cult status throughout the world, was originally created in 1984 by the famed Japanese cartoonist Akira Toriyama.
Toriyama was born on April 5, 1955 in Aichi Prefecture and was inspired early by artists such as Osamu Tezuka and Walt Disney. After winning a drawing contest as a child with a caricature based on Disney’s 101 Dalmatians, he began drawing in earnest. Following Toriyama’s graduation from the design department of a local industrial high school, he began working at an ad agency. However, he quickly grew tired of the job and decided to return to his true love—drawing manga, or comics. Toriyama’s initial works were heavily laced with sharp sarcasm honed to a razor-sharp edge he developed while working in advertising.
Toriyama’s major debut came in 1978 when a short comic of his called Wonder Island was published in the extremely popular weekly manga magazine called Shukan Shonen Jump. The following year, he launched a mega-manga called Dr. Slump. This comic series created a frenzy similar to the Hello Kitty craze that enveloped Japan. Dr. Slump lasted until 1984, the year he started Dragon Ball.
The title characters for both the Dr. Slump and the original Dragon Ball series were very similar. The half-robot, half-girl Arare from Dr. Slump, and Son Gokuh, the half-simian alien boy from Dragon Ball, possessed a pure innocence, a lack of tact and common sense, and super-human speed and strength. Both series also poked fun at the human species’ many faults on a regular basis with sharp irony, and stingingly funny sarcasm.
The original Dragon Ball comic ran for 11 years and wrapped in spring 1995. The television series (which changed to Dragon Ball Z in the year 2000) shadowed the storyline in 30-minute increments every week— following the protagonist into his teens, adulthood, fatherhood, and beyond. During the 11-year tenure, Gokuh not only became the most powerful martial artist in the universe, he also “died” several times (and is, of course, resurrected), saved the world, and even had grandchildren.
After wrapping up his work on Dragon Ball, Akira Toriyama worked as a consultant for Dragon Ball GT, a new series that was created by the Bandai Toy Company for a younger audience. Torlyama however wished to keep the satirical element of his work in the forefront so he left the story lines to younger writers. Recently, Toriyama has worked on several short graphic stories such as AlienX, Cowa, and a series called Kajika. Toriyama has also consulted in the video game business—working on titles for Sony’s PlayStation, the XBOX 360, and others. However, AkiraToriyama will always be remembered in Japan for the small boy and girl that are stronger than steel but possess hearts of gold.
—Mike Daley
Got questions for Mike? E-mail editor@okinawa.usmc-mccs.org.
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